Disney Rumor Round Up May 2018

Welcome to the May 2018 edition of Disney Rumor Round Up! You can check out the April 2018 installment here. Things have been heating up this month, so lets get to it! Disclaimer: any rumors mentioned in this article are not confirmed by Disney and may not ever happen.

While it was pretty certain before, the Main Street Theater project is definitely cancelled for now as permit amendments were made for work at Magic Kingdom. Previously the permits would list MK1 and MK2, with 1 being the theater and 2 being Tron Lightcycle Coaster. The permits now only list MK2.

In a recent interview of outgoing Vice President of Magic Kingdom Dan Cockerell by Big Fat Panda along with Scott Gustin, news came up that the money allocated for the Main Street Theater will indeed go to other Magic Kingdom projects and things already announced by Disney. As mentioned in earlier versions of Rumor Round Up, Tomorrowland will be the focus of the 50th anniversary. Dan also mentioned that the 50th will be a huge event for the resort. According to WDWMagic sources Carousel of Progress, Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover, and Tomorrowland Speedway will all get updates for the 50th anniversary.

Disney released a time-lapse video showing the massive concrete foundation pour for the 10+ story gravity building that will house the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. Since then, the first steel has been raised and the building is now vertical. It is expected a tower crane will soon go up to help with construction in that area.

According to WDWMagic sources, the Illuminations replacement with the rumored title “Windows of the World” will debut in summer 2019.

There has been some confusion and rumor regarding the possible Epcot hotel at the front of the park. Currently there are two locations set aside for the possible hotel, one being the entrance of the park or the other being off to the side near the Seas pavilion. Land clearing near the Epcot parking lot has begun for a possible retention pond that would be needed for work in that area. Disney filed 27 permits for Epcot recently that many believed were related to the hotel project. However, they are not. These permits are all over the perimeter road of Epcot and filed with Buena Vista Construction, which is Disney’s own construction company. Buena Vista Construction does not do major projects for Disney; they typically do smaller projects such as Food & Wine Festival booths and stuff like that. This project could also affect future runDisney events as Disney uses the Epcot parking lot for many of its events.

Finally, Disney confirmed the location of the new space-themed restaurant. It will be, as mentioned in previous Rumor Round Ups, between Test Track and Mission: Space. Others believed it would go into Wonders of Life. What exactly is going on with Wonders of Life remains a mystery and very few rumors are surrounding that vacant pavilion.

As of mid-May, cast members are now testing the all new Slinky Dog Dash coaster. This is the first report of actual people being on the coaster. Toy Story Land continues to race towards its June 30th grand opening. Disney has also confirmed Mr. Potato Head will return in the Toy Story Mania queue.

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway seems to be the forgotten child of the work going on at Hollywood Studios. It is still progressing and, according to sources on WDWMagic, could soft open as early as August 2019.

Disney recently announced the opening seasons for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, with summer 2019 for Disneyland and late fall 2019 for Hollywood Studios. If you are a reader of these articles this news isn’t really new, but confirms what we have been hearing. For Disney, summer usually begins Memorial Day weekend. As for late fall, I think they are targeting around Thanksgiving for an opening. Disney also said the name of the village inside Galaxy’s Edge will be called Black Spire Outpost and will include a creature stall which will have “live” loth-cats and even offer the ability to adopt creatures to take home.

Dinoland U.S.A. continues to be a big discussion topic for Animal Kingdom. According to WDWMagic sources, Dinosaur could close as early as next year for a major redo into an Indiana Jones-themed attraction. While the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction in Disneyland uses the same ride system and layout, the rumored new attraction wouldn’t be an exact copy of the Disneyland attraction. Disneyland Paris is also included in the rumor, in that they could be getting the same ride Animal Kingdom would get. The rest of Dinoland would be renovated to fit the new theming, while still involving dinosaurs.

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According to a source of mine, new monorails are on the way. Bombardier would be the company who builds the new monorail trains; they were the company who built the previous monorails as well. The plan would have at least some of the new trains at Walt Disney World in time for the 50th anniversary. Disney wants to make some system changes with the new monorails that could result in not being able to run the current and new monorails during the changeover.

We also saw additional permits filed in accordance with Project 89, which was on the River Country site. The new permits are near the old STOLport airport which is for staging and dirt piling. It is expected that this will be the next Disney Vacation Club Resort.

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